And cutting up beans



4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

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J. KHLER 8v G. WITTMANN. MACHINE FOR TRIMMING AND CUTTING UP BEANS. No. 464,880. Patented Dec. 8, 1891.

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J. KOHLER & G. WITTMANN. MACHINE PoR TNIMMING AND CUTTING UP BEANS.

No. 464,880, Patented Deo. 8, 1891.

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(No Mdel.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 3. J. KHLER 8v G. WITTMANN. MACHINE FOR TEIMMING AND CUTTING UP BEANS.

Paten-ted Dec, 8, 1891.

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(No Model.) 4 Sheets-sheen 4.

J. KOHLBR & G. WITTMANN. MACHINE PoR TNIMMING AND CUTTINGV UP BEANS.

No. 464,880. Patented Deo. 8, 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

JOSEF KOI'ILER, OF MANNHEIM, AND GEORG VITTMANN, OF SOIIIVETZINGEN, GERMANY.

MACHINE FOR TRIMIVIING AND CUTTING UP BEANS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 464,880, dated December 8,1891.

Application filed July '7, 1891. Serial No. 393,704. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom, it may concern.-

. Be it known that we, JOSEF KOHLER, of Mannheim, and GEORG WITTMANN, of Schwetzingen, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and

German Empire, have invented a new and useful Machine for Trimming and Cutting up Beans, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings. Y

io This machine for trimming and cutting up beans (constructed according1 to this invention) has for its object to pull off the strings or filaments from the two sides of a bean and then to convey the pods by means of a travcling band to a bean-cutting device, upon which the beans freed from their strings are cnt up in several parts, and thus prepared for preserving, cooking, orother purposes. This machine operates in such a manner that the zo beans are laid flat upon a feeding-table and subsequently seized by a pair of rimmed conveyer-disks, which brings them to the heads of the trimming or pulling-off knives. These knives are placed at an angle to the advancing bean cutin the grain between the two parts of the pod, and thereby extract the strings, which are found on both sides of beans, as the latter move forward. These strings are led away on both sides by the knives, 3o while the beans freed therefrom are moved farther by a traveling band and thrown against an oscillating roller having resilient bearings, and which feeds the latter in suitable lengths tothe circular knives. The ma- 3 5 chine is actuated by a crank-handle or by any suitable means or power. The invention is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure I is a front view, and Fig. II a plan, 4o of .the machine. Fig. III is a longitudinal section of the machine on line A B of Fig. II. Fig. IV is a horizontal section of the machine on line O D of Fig. III. Fig. V is a rear view of the machine. Fig. VI is a vertical View on line EF of Fig. IV. Figs. VII,

VII, VIIe, VIId, VIIe are detail views of the two knives used to extract the strings, Fig. VII showing a knife from above Fig. VIIb a horizontal section of a knife on line G I-I of 5o Fig. VII, Fig. VIIC a View of a knife from the entrance side of the beans, and Fig. VIIL1 a view of a knife from behind and Fig. VIIC a side view of the knife as it appears when seen in the direction of line A B of Fig. Ill.

The bean trimming and cutting machine is constructed as follows: The shaft NV, set in motion by the crank-handle a or other mechanism, such as a pulley A, and upon which the knives S, Figs. III and IV are fixed, drives the shaftI L by means of belts or cords 6o a and of the disks a2 and a3, and the shaft M by means of belts or cords a* and of the disks a5 and a0. Upon the shaft L is mounted 'the conveyer-disk T, which turns in the direction of the arrow and is ribbed on its periphery s0 65 as to better seize hold of the beans. Over this eonveyer-disk is arranged another disk T', likewise ribbed and keyed on the shaft N. This shaft N is rotated in the direction of the arrow by the aid of cord or belt a7 and of the 7o disks a8 and a, so that both conveyer-disks have a tendency to seize hold of the beans laid on the table x. The shaft M transmits further a rotary motion to the axis O at the rear of the machine by means of the cord or 75 belt in. and of the disks m2 m3, the axis O carrying the drawing-rollers P, which are used to bring the beans against the circular knife S. The shaft M imparts also a motion to the shaft Q by means of the cord or belt m4 and 8o of the disks 'm5 m6. The shaft Q carries a roller q and an axis Q', arranged behind the conveyer-disks and carrying a roller q, Fig. III. On the two rollers q q is arranged the traveling band U, which is driven in the direction of the arrow and has for its object to convey the beans from the trimming to the cutting knives. The heads lr, 7.3 of the trimming-knives, which are arranged behind the conveyerdisks T T', (the latter of which serves to feed the beans,) are symmetric and slide upon guiding-pins y, Fig. VIP, being pressed against the small sides of the beans by the spiral springs y. The heads 7c 7.: of the trimming knives are furnished with 9 5v blocks e', to which are fixed by means of screws z3 the hollow knives e', furnished with asharp point The hollowing of the knife forms a channel which removes the strings drawn thereby from the beans and eXpels them at 10o the side of the machine. A protecting-plate s, (see Figs. I, II, III, IV, and V,) arranged in front of the knives, prevents the strings separated from being pressed into the knives. 4The trimming-knives carry a semicircular adj j ustable guide .e5 at their front ends, which is turned 'toward the beans as'they are being introduced, this guide being placed against the beans and regulating the distance between the knives in accordance with the width of the bean. To insure that the conveyerdisk may always seize hold of the beans notwithstanding their different thicknesses, the

'bearing n of the shaft N of the upper conveyer-disk is guided within forks n and are pressed downward by springs n2 against the beans. The beans which have been operated upon by the trimming-knives are :fed forward on the 'traveling band., and the former are prevented from falling by the walls v fu, arranged `above the said band. Before the beans reach the ycutting-knives they abut against a roller w, which imparts thereto the proper downward direction to cause them to drop into the cutting-knife mechanism. The roller yw/can turn upon the lever h, vwhich oscillates on the pin d, and is suspended to the side walls o v. To oppose a suitable resistance to the beans abutting against the roller fw, a spiral spring is 'arranged upon the arm J2. of the lever hand is held bythe frame,

at h2, so as to cause the lever hto abut against the stop h3. S is a scraper fixed to the lpart S2 of the frame and .designed to clean the circular knife S. the table .'L and passing through the two rollers and x2 are seized by the conveyerdisks T T and immediately freed from their strings by the knives z a, these strings issu- I ing :laterally from these knives thro-ugh the channel a4. The beans are now further oonveyed by the traveling-band and guided by the roller w toward the knives S. The draw- Should it The beans placed on only be required to extract the strings from the beans and not to cut them, the spiral spring f would be disconnected and the lever 71, pulled back with the roller w, so that the beans delivered by the traveling band U would be directly removed from the machine Wit-hout reaching the knives.

That we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-` l. The combination of the conveyer-disks, the spring-heads, the trimming-knives mounted on the spring-heads, and the table for feeding the beans to the conveyer-disks, which in turn present the beans` to the trimmingknives, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the feeding-table, the conveyer-dis'ks, 'the spring-heads, the tri mming knivesmounted on the spring-heads, and the traveling band, substantially as described.

3. The combination of 'the conveyer-disks, the'sprin g-heads, the trimming-knives mount- -ed von the spring-heads,'the traveling band,

4the heads mounted upon the guiding-rods,

andthe trimming-knives mounted upon the heads, hav-ing ychannels and circular guides .somewhat drawn back near the cutting-edges of tli-etrimmizng-knives for the purpose vof determinzingthe cutting dept-h of the latter,sub stantially as described.

In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands lin presence yof two Witnesses.

4JOSEF KOHLER.

GEORG WITTMANN.

VVitnfesses HERMANN MLLER, R. I-I. GRor-P. 

